Oiselle, a women’s athletic apparel brand, appointed Atsuko Tamura as president. Effective immediately, Tamura will join Founder and CEO Sally Bergesen in leading the rapidly growing company with a focus on operations, finance, strategic growth via multiple channels, both established and soon to be announced.
Bringing Tamura on board allows Bergesen the time and energy she needs to spend in continuing to lead Oiselle’s product strategies and marketing efforts. Tamura’s experience and skills are a great complement to Bergesen, and they are excited about this opportunity to work together.
“I am humbled, honored and excited to join Sally and Oiselle,” said Tamura. “It’s a rare opportunity to become a part of a brand with so much product, customer and community credibility. As they say in The Nest, ‘head up, wings out.’ And I find myself wondering: is the sky really the limit? We’re on our way to finding out!”
Tamura joins Oiselle after an impressive career leading top-level brands to accelerated growth as President & CEO and Marketing & Financial leader at several esteemed companies. After she graduated from the University of Washington with her Business Degree, she received her CPA and had careers at both Ernst & Young as well as Microsoft before transitioning into the active lifestyle industry where she has spent the majority of her career. As a former competitive swimmer, she is connected to the sports & active lifestyle space and the companies whose vision, mission, values and brands she respects and feels that she can help make a positive difference.
Tamura is most noted for her impressive twelve-year resume at REI. She joined REI as a Senior Tax Analyst and Accounting Department Supervisor and left as the senior vice president of strategy, marketing, communications and public affairs. She joined REI when it was a $362 Million company and oversaw it to it to a $1.2 Billion company when she departed in June 2006. During her time there, she was responsible for increasing traffic to all shopping channels, membership sales, supporting store growth strategies and renewing critical cross-departmental relationships amongst key departments. She also helped shape REI’s corporate transformation to an omni-channel retailer while building a cross-departmental sales and strategy planning process.
Following her leadership positions at REI and two years as CFO & VP of marketing at Onlineshoes.com, Tamura spent fours years as President & CEO at Evo, a leading, young action sports retailer. Tamura recapitalized evo’s balance sheet with infusion of new equity and nearly tripled revenue with three consecutive years of profit and positive cash flow.
Upon her departure with Evo, Tamura took a year of advising and consulting founders and brands who she connected with and felt were genuinely making a difference in their related industries, and that is when she met Bergesen.
“As we reach higher altitudes, it's my top priority to bring on the right people at the right time,” said Bergesen. “Atsuko has the ultimate combination of experience, heart, and talent — and knows what it takes to lead a fast-growing consumer brand. I'm honored to have her at my side as we have some really exciting initiatives on the table for 2015 and beyond.”
Founded in 2007, Oiselle (pronounced wa-zell) is based in Seattle.
